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Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 5 Jul 1988

Vol. 120 No. 12

Bankruptcy Bill, 1982: Motion.

I move:

That, notwithstanding anything in Standing Orders, in view of—

(i) the Second Stage of the Bankruptcy Bill, 1982 having been taken on the 10th July, 1984, on the referral of the Bill to the then Joint Committee on Legislation pursuant to the then Order of the House of the 29th July, 1983,

and

(ii) the Committee Stage having been taken in that Joint Committee pursuant to the then Order of the House of 7th July, 1983,

the Second and Committee Stages of the Bankruptcy Bill, 1982 be waived and the Bill be set down for Report Stage.

The purpose of putting down the Bill for Report Stage is in effect to restore it to the Order Paper or to the stage it had reached in the previous Seanad. For technical reasons the usual procedure for restoring Bills under Standing Order 101 could not be used and this motion is in substitution for that procedure. The other House took the Bill on Report Stage and the Seanad is only being asked to do the same. To facilitate Senators I have arranged for a report of the proceedings of the former Joint Committee on Legislation and the debates of the committee on the Bill, nine in all, to be made available in the Seanad Office. The House must agree that this is the proper procedure to take since this Bill has been around since 1962.

I am very happy to support——

This motion is very narrow and we cannot have a debate on it. We will clear the motion and take the debate at a later date.

May we speak on the motion?

Yes, but the debate is narrow.

I am very happy to support this motion for a number of reasons. First I support it because the matter in the Bill is important. This will be the first major reform of the bankruptcy laws in this country in over 100 years.

The history of the Bill is a classic example of how public business should not be done. The reports upon which this Bill are based appeared in 1962. It was not until 1982 that the legislation itself was published and it languished for a number of years until the last Government, because of the complexity of the Bill, referred it to a special committee, a subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Legislation. I had the honour to chair that committee and throughout a year and a half the all-party joint committee debated this Bill in great detail. It was a very good example of the sort of care and attention which can be given to legislation in a committee of this sort. There were extremely high level contributions from very many people and at the end of the day the Minister was in a position to accept many of the amendments made and the legislation as it left committee certainly was good and very much improved on the original draft.

The important point is that this legislation was very adequately and comprehensively debated by members of all parties from both Houses in that joint committee. It certainly would not be appropriate at this stage to go back to Second Stage of this Bill, as it has about 160 sections of complicated and urgent legislation. It is with enthusiasm that I support the move today to restore it to the Order Paper on Report Stage. I look forward to a full debate at that point. The legislation is urgent and I look forward to seeing it on the Statute Book as we have waited long enough for it.

I hope that the device of taking complicated Bills in Joint Committees is one which this Government and both Houses could look at with great profit. If the Companies Bill had been referred to a special committee we would have made more progress. Although the cause of the delay does not lie in this House — it lies with the Government Department — nonetheless it is the proper forum within which to debate complicated legislation of this kind. I commend to the Government the idea that they might look hard at the use of this mechanism. I also commend the motion to the House.

I support the motion and in doing so I congratulate Senator Manning on his procedural vigilance in this matter. It is a compliment to him as a past chairman of the committee and to the members who discussed this Bill at length. Could I have an indication from the Whip, who is now acting Leader of the House, as to when Report Stage of this Bill will be taken? Report Stage is a very limited procedure for the Members of the Oireachtas, we cannot have a full and frank discussion as each member is allowed to speak only once. I have some reservations in dealing with legislation of this nature as a general principle, particularly as the Labour Party are a small group in this House and by their composition may not be privileged to sit in the Committee Stages of some of this legislation. Our ability to contribute on Report Stage will be very limited.

However, I recognise all the work that has been done in this by Senator Manning's committee and I accept that this is how we should deal with the Bill. Perhaps the acting Leader of the House could indicate when the Report Stage of this Bill will be debated? Will it be on tomorrow's Order Paper? I know it could not be on it today as this motion has to be passed, but perhaps we could have an indication when we might see the Bill?

We hope to take the Bill on Thursday.

Question put and agreed to.
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